The Nursery

Well, besides a few details here and there, the nursery is basically complete!! The furniture is in, the paint is on the walls, and we're so excited to have a place to welcome our little girl!! The mural was hand-painted by our munchkin's Nana and her Poppy hand-carved some decorative walking sticks for her. We cannot wait for other family elements to embrace her space!

Below are some pictures of various stages of completion.

Mark and Poppy after putting the crib together

From the hallway

Changing table from the hallway

Bookshelf and Mural


Bookshelf, Mural, and Crib


Bookshelf, Mural, and Crib with Switch Mural

Mural over crib

Crib with Ugly Dolls

Glider with Poppy's sticks in the background

Erin's New "Mom Car"

So this is our new "baby" (of course until the real baby gets here)!!! We decided on a matching white 2007 Toyota 4Runner . . . Erin's version of a mom car :) It's all tricked out with lots of cool features, especially safety features. It's way fancier than we ever thought we'd get, but it just seemed to fall into our laps and say "Take me home . . . you'll love me!" Gives us plenty of room for the kid and the dogs and all the kid stuff. We're super excited! It was very hard to say good-bye to the Tundra (see pics for proof), but we are looking forward to traveling in its replacement.

Part of our super-fancy Navigation System with Bluetooth and all sorts of other stuff we haven't figured out yet!

Good-bye dear, Tundra. You are a good truck and we'll miss you :(

Baby Room

Well we're getting closer and closer to that due date and Mark has been slowly vacating the baby room in favor of actual baby items. Erin's cousin gave us a TON of stuff. Here we're just getting started unloading it all. Thanks much to Shannon and Brett!

New Floor!

I thought that I had already posted this but apparently not... We had our kitchen floor done! Well, almost done. We still need to seal it but we've been waiting for the right day (read procrastination)! Maybe tomorrow. ;-) Anyway, I broke down and got some "professional" help. Here's the new floor pre-seal. It may be a bit shiny when we're done but hopefully not too shiny.

This first picture is the hardiboard backer and if you look real close you can see the little Italian guy we hired.


This here is the slate being laid out pre-grout.


This is the duct tape layout our guy did to try to save himself some time on the cleanup. I think he spent 2-3 hours putting it down. I actually really like the look!


Here's the complete grouted slate tile floor. Beware anything breakable!

Productive Weekend

The Baby's Crib We finally did it! We got a crib! We were running some errands on Saturday and decided to stop by a local baby boutique just to see what they have after my terrifying visit to Babies R Us. They had the EXACT crib we wanted that we saw online and it was even less expensive!! The sales people were so friendly and nice and helpful and it was such a different and wonderful experience comparatively!! We will definitely be getting as much from Baby Bloomers as we possibly can! And, they sell REAL cloth diapers there!! Some things were a little more expensive, but I think overall it's worth it!

Because we were on such a roll, we decided to also stop by a local furniture store called Celedon to look for the cube shelf system I wanted for the nursery. I don't really like the people that work there, (they can be pretty snooty) but it's the ONLY place that has these cubes! So we went in and they had ONE there in a dark wood stain, so we got it immediately! For anyone who has been to our house, it is identical to the one that is currently being used in the "pantry", except the stain is dark instead of white. While we were standing in line to pay, I noticed another couple frantically searching through the newspaper. I asked them if there was a coupon or something and they said YES, 30% off!! There were about 4 salespeople standing around and not ONE of them said anything to us about the coupon! Luckily we had our paper in the car, Mark ran out to grab it and ta-da!!!!! . . . 30% off my cube shelf! Just confirms to me why I don't like to shop there. So, between the antique dough tray my parents brought to us to use as the changing table, and the single stack of cubes to put beside it that we will pick up from them on our next trip to VA, we have a complete nursery!! Okay, well, we have nursery furniture :) We are still deciding on a glider, but that will be the last piece of furniture we need to purchase, so we're very excited about that. Buying the crib was a very exciting experience for us . . . it makes it very REAL :)

In the spirit of getting ready for the baby, we had a house cleansing yesterday. Poor Bonnie's chair is finally gone (alright, alright, I can hear the cheers from here!), as is the old, leaky fishtank, unusable computer monitor, and a cabinet/drawer or two. The old fridge is in the garage so my craft-room-to-be is shaping up. We also rearranged the living room at my request (demand). The couch is positioned to where it originally was and the room is totally opened up and looks about 3 times bigger. There is now plenty of room for baby crap and manuevering. We will also be able to set up the glider in the living room while I am home on maternity leave. The TV is temporarily housed in the fireplace in order for us to see if we like the set-up and want to put the money into a new TV . . . Mark is not yet sold on this idea as he has an attachment to our current TV (or more so an attachement to not spending money on a NEW TV) :) So, we're getting there. We looked at several desks for Mark and are also investigating some possibilities on Craig's List. We will pick up the cube shelf today, and the crib sometime next week. Ahhhh . . . things are happening!!! :)

THE Event of the Summer in Charleston: DMB

Dave Matthews Band on July 4, 2008

DMB: Mark and Erin at the Joe

During the Show: We stayed up on the top deck where we had picnic tables and a lovely breeze. Others at the show, opted to stand in cattle-herding position on the field. There were random fireworks going off all over the place and we could see all of them behind the stage. It was truly beautiful, and DMB sure does know how to put on a great show!!

DMB: This is still a shot of Dave Matthews Band, but they had a GREAT opening act called Old Crow Medicine Show. It was a bluegrass band and they were absolutely wonderful!! Dave Matthews himself came out to introduce them. We went to the show with our friends Bill and Amy, and Amy's parents Sharon and Billy. We also met our other friends Chad and Stephanie, and Chad's brother Clyde and his girlfriend Kelsey there. It was just a fabulous time!

Bring on the Pink Skulls . . . No Bows Please :)

SURPRISE!! IT'S A BANDANA-WEARING, WILD-WOMAN-TO-BE, LITTLE GIRL!!

(I wonder if she got that "Silvis Laugh" . . . poor Mark!!)

If she is anything like her Momma, this will be the last time she will ever be this flexible!!!

Isn't it amazing that you can see all four chambers of her little heart? She's a mover and a shaker and is constantly letting me know she's here!